Even by Lebanon’s requirements, the interval from 2019 to 2021 was a turbulent interval within the nation’s historical past. In October 2019 protests towards political corruption and the federal government’s poor dealing with of the stagnating economic system erupted throughout the nation. A brand new authorities was fashioned, but this too crumbled within the wake of the massive explosion that rocked Beirut’s port space in August 2020. Rolling blackouts, shortages of gasoline and medicines and common financial woe stored the protests – lots of which have been pushed as a lot by ladies as males – persevering with properly into 2021.
If the issues are nonetheless very a lot current, the turmoil did have one surprising consequence. Beforehand maintaining to their very own districts of Beirut, the musicians within the metropolis’s underground rock and experimental scene have been sparked into larger collaboration by the collective motion of the protest motion. Probably the most outstanding group to return from that melting pot up to now is Sanam.
Initially coming collectively to again Faust’s Hans Joachim Irmler at 2021’s Irtijal competition, the six Lebanese musicians stayed collectively afterwards to create their very own group. With their drums, bass, electrical guitar and vocals they’re capable of harness the facility of Western rock music, however their sound is basically experimental – Anthony Sahyoun contributes synths, typically used to govern his guitar – and in addition deeply rooted of their homeland: the normal Levantine instrument the buzuq, is a powerful flavour right here, performed by the grasp participant and musicologist Farah Kaddour.
Their 2023 debut LP, Aykathani Malakon – which interprets as An Angel Woke Me – launched their type, a brutal mixture of post-punk, krautrock and Arabic influences. It was recorded in an remoted home within the Lebanese countryside, however the creation of their follow-up was very totally different: a lot of the report was tracked on the residential La Frette simply outdoors Paris, favoured studio of Nick Cave and Arctic Monkeys, after stints engaged on the fabric in Beirut and the town of Byblos.
Sametou Sawtan, or I Heard A Voice, finds Sanam’s sound evolving, presumably as they change into extra snug as a gaggle. If a few of the debut’s experiments may often really feel a little bit tough and prepared, Sametou Sawtan could be very a lot the completed product. Its textures vary from the hushed and spectral to maximalist gothic cacophony. The closing title observe, as an illustration, one in every of solely two tracks surviving from the Byblos classes, finds Sandy Chamoun’s magnificent voice meditative and keening over solely delicate drones and dusty clatters.
The opener, “Harik”, is the polar reverse, starting with pounding drums, atonal synth explosions and Chamoun’s guttural shrieks. Farah Kaddour’s calmly distorted buzuq quickly raggedly solutions Chamoun because the depth rises. The 9 and a half minute “Hamam” is equally excessive, coming in with a free-form jangle that means latter-day Sonic Youth, besides with Levantine microtonal tuning; by the midway level of the observe, buzzing, ominous drones threaten to overwhelm Chamoun’s tortured voice, till the ultimate couple of minutes erupt right into a metallic climax. “Hadikat Al Ams” is a pulsing, galloping, one-chord piece, at instances as punishing as Sanam’s favourites, Swans, till it periodically collapses into free jazz clamour; “Sayl Damei” is post-punk with a distinctly Radiohead-esque sinuosity.
Quieter moments are offered by “Goblin”, a lot of which is simply Chamoun’s voice and Sahyoun’s dusky synth, tuned to the microtonal Arabic scale, and “Habibon”, a smokey crawl, Chamoun’s voice run by means of Auto-tune that renders her much more melismatic.
Lyrically, apart from two songs written by Chamoun, these items span millennia of Arabic folklore, tune and poetry: there are Egyptian conventional folks songs, equivalent to “Hamam” (‘Little Dove’), items by trendy Lebanese poet Paul Chaoul and Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, and a variety of thousand-year-old texts by the likes of Omar Khayyam and Ibn Nubata. The latter place Sanam as some form of folk-rock band; it’s hardly stunning, contemplating the struggling of the individuals of the Arab world, that the group are properly conscious of their historical past, and utilizing their artwork to speak one thing greater than themselves.
Fusion of the previous and new isn’t uncommon within the Center East; but, in all its fury and sonic exploration, Sametou Sawtan updates traditions in a means that feels true to the spirit of protest that birthed the group, and to the counterculture they exist inside. Confrontational, progressive and at instances deeply stunning, Sanam’s music is an exciting instance of the magic that may come from chaos.
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